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I haven't posted in awhile because I've been unusually busy. We've been remodeling our home from the inside out for the past few years and this year, especially with the pandemic, has been more intense. We had unexpected flooding in the basement which meant fixing that problem, insurance, estimates, and then contractors who had to stop for the plague. All of which, I am happy to report, is finally completed as of yesterday.

In the midst of which we've been planning the next project, which is the home studio. Now with everyone home we decided to tackle the entire thing and make it a much better working space. Most of that work is happening this week. As if to add even more work to that, a few days ago I got a new piece of equipment I'm super excited about. The Wacom 32" Cintiq Pro that arrived late last Thursday evening. I've been using Wacom tablets since the early 90's for various things, but I've always found the parallax between drawing on the tablet and watching the screen to be a barrier. Since these new tablets arrived I've been itching to get my hands on one, you draw right on them. No delay, no weird parallax feeling, and the glass is even textured so it feels good doing it.

So I've been getting that set-up in the old studio and giving it some practice. The illustration above is the piece I finished yesterday using it. I think I probably re-started and re-did this thing four or five times, trying out brushes, techniques, and other approaches. I still have a lot to learn, but to be honest it really is just getting used to a new tool. Everything else I've been doing for 30+ years already.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE This Saturday, May 23rd, A Band Apart will be hosting their fifth Frigate Free For All (FFA) in Ouelletta, Verge Vendor, from 16:00-20:00 Eve time. 4,000 Frigates will be available for FREE to all participants in the Federal Navy Academy station at Planet V Moon V. “The free Frigates will be fit so that anyone, no matter their skill level or experience, can fly one and enjoy a fun environment of friendly combat,” said Rixx Javix, Executor of A Band Apart alliance and host of the event, “this is still Eve of course, but this is as safe of an environment as we can provide.” The last FFA saw 2,000 players take to space and resulted in over 45,000 explosions over the entire afternoon, “The red dot on the New Eden map was huge!”, Javix said. During the course of the event on Saturday special events will be announced in local, giving pilots a chance to score valuable kills and loot - all provided by pilots in ABA. “We have some special ships our pilots are planning on b…

On Saturday between the hours of 16:00 and 20:00 thousands of ships will be exploded in Ouelletta during the ABA Frigate Free for All. But why should you come to the event? This is your chance! Within the context of Eve the tables are often skewed against you. You know exactly what I am talking about. You're young, you like to focus on mining, industry, staying out of trouble...whatever it is you enjoy doing in Eve. This is your chance to let your hair down and have some pew pew fun. All with a minimum of risk. And while I'd be the last person to tell you it is going to be perfectly safe, within the normal context of Eve, the FFA is at least balanced in your favor. It is as close as you can get to a fair shake in this game. For a few hours you'll be on the field with other players in the same kind of ships, with the same kind of skills, doing the same kind of things. Nothing is "fair" in this universe, but this is as close as it can get for a brief moment in time. A…

On Saturday May 23rd, A Band Apart in association with Streamfleet, will be holding a FFA: Frigate Free For All in Ouelletta. Open to all players young and old, the FFA will feature 4,000 FREE Frigates to be handed out to participants during the four hours of the event, as well as very special event "events" to be announced in the coming weeks. Not to mention prizes!

"The FFA was terrific, This was the best time I ever had in eve." - Saki

These events are huge, you can see the results from our last one in that image above. But it is also the perfect place for any player, no matter what you do in-game or your experience level, to get a taste for PvP in as safe and friendly an environment that you can find in New Eden. The ships are FREE. All the fights will be between Frigates and we'll even have some places for you to get on bigger ship killmails along the way.

More details will be announced as we get closer to the date, but be sure to mark your calendars now …

"This was the best event I have ever participated in after 15 years of playing the game. Thank you Rixx and A Band Apart for all your hard work! o7" - Solidus Zero via Twitter Saturday hundreds and hundreds of Capsuleers grabbed free Frigates and headed into space to find combat, duels, insane battles at the Sun, and do it all over again for four straight hours during our FFA in Ouelletta. Nearly 6,000 ships exploded in glorious balls of fire during the event. All in all A Band Apart handed out over 3,200 fully fit Frigates. You can watch the entire thing over on Streamfleet thanks to Corvus Onzo and Streamfleet, ISD Thalack, CCP Convict, CCP Aurora, and everyone else who helped make the event such a massive success.

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